Routes, Planning, & Inspiration for Your North American Road Trip

Appomattox
Court House lies just east of Lynchburg, Virginia, on
Highway 460. Thanks to the fact that it was all but deserted
after the Civil War, it looks a lot like it must have
when Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia
to Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865.

The
Courthouse, where most people think Lee
surrendered

Many
people think that the meeting between the two generals
took place in the courthouse, which is now the park's
Visitor Center, but the historic rendezvous really happened
in the parlor of the McLean house nearby. The reason
for the confusion is that the town's name was Appomattox
Court House. "If you spell courthouse as two words,
it means the town," explained Supervisory Park
Ranger Ron Wilson. "Many county seats in this area
had Court House
as part of their names, and some still do, like Amelia
Court House. But if you spell courthouse as one word,
then you're talking about the building."

Ron
Wilson, Supervisory Park Ranger

Ranger
Wilson went on to explain how the agreement between
Grant and Lee set the stage for the Civil War to end.
"There was very little fighting after Lee's surrender,"
he said, "Even though other armies were still in
the field."

No
photographers were on hand to capture the historic meeting.
"They were elsewhere, taking pictures of battlefields,"
explained Ranger Wilson. "The only observer at
the event was a rag doll that happened to be in the
parlor. The soldiers nicknamed her "The Silent
Witness," and she's on display in the Visitor Center."